Fan Shaming, Unpopular Opinions, and the Godzilla Situation

July 31, 2015
Written by Heath Hindman

(Stream the podcast with the YouTube link above or use this MP3 download link if you’d like to go that route. We’ll eventually start paying for SoundCloud and get that going again. For now, time to set things up and dollars in the bank are in short supply!)

The PS3/PS4 game Godzilla brought about the latest example of a phenomenon that’s always bothered me: fan shaming. That’s when one member of a fan base doesn’t like something, expresses it, and then is told he/she is “not a real fan” or some similarly worded scorn. In this podcast, we talk about that with the newest Godzilla game.

We also talk about the other end, how it’s totally okay to feel differently about a game than the majority. Some fans get upset when widespread review scores are low (for example, Godzilla’s Metacritic rating is like 38 right now). But does everything you like need to have a high Metascore? No. Conversely, do things with high review scores demand that you love them? Of course not. Like what you like and be proud.

It’s hard to avoid getting into the topic of game reviews in general, because you can go 100 different directions with it, each its own huge can of worms; so we do of course bring that up, but try to keep from getting too crazy with it.

Contents:

02:09 – Godzilla’s poor reception 05:08 – Quiz time! 05:49 – “You’re not a fan of XYZ!” 07:47 – “You’re a graphics whore!” 08:08 – “Go back to Call of Duty!” 09:26 – “You just suck at the game!” + Difficulty levels 14:49 – “You’re just trolling for hits!” 16:49 – Opinions that differ from the crowd 19:39 – “They don’t understand my gaaaaaaaame!” 21:54 – Authenticity doesn’t make for good gameplay 27:10 – Fans shaming other fans 30:04 – There’s nothing wrong with not being good at a game 36:20 – Games appealing to different people is a good thing!